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<h1 class="title">Liquid Diagrams</h1>

<p class="title">
&copy;2009 Martin Lessacher<br/>
</p>


<h2 class="title">Bar Chart</h2>
<p>Bar charts also date back to William Playfair 1786. In a bar chart, each entity is represented by one or more horizontal or vertical rectangles. The width or height of each rectangle is determined by its value and indicates the entity's influence. Bar charts are especially useful for comparing two or more values.
<p>

<br />
	<a href="images/barchart.png"><img class="center" src="images/barchart.png" alt="The Liquid Diagrams bar chart visualisation." width="650" height="350"/></a>
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<h2 class="title">Features</h2>

<b>Changing the colours of entities</b><br/>
<p>Initially the colours used in a visualisation depend on the chosen colour scheme. Colour schemes
are colour palettes that define a limited amount of colours that are used in a visualisation. The 
colour schemes where taken from <a href="http://de-de.colourlovers.com">COLOURLovers</a>. If a colour scheme has
less colours defined than entities are present in a data set the colours are repeated.</p>

<p>All colours used to draw entities can be changed by using a colour picker. To change the colour of a specific entity the user has to
click on the colour rectangle, representing the entities colour, in the legend panel. This will bring
up the colour picker. After selecting the colour the selection is verified with the Ok button and the
colour is immediately assigned to the entity.</p><br/>

<b>Changing fonts</b><br/>
<p>All the fonts used in the visualisations can be replaced by other fonts. To do this the user has to switch
to the "Font" panel in the options and choose a font colour, size and type for the desired font 
category. When using the corresponding buttons it is possible to set the font style to bold, italic and 
underline. The selected fonts are loaded on runtime into the gadget.</p><br/>

<b>Hide single entities</b><br/>
<p>Entities can be hidden by clicking on an entities name in the legend panel while holding down the
ALT key. Clicking once more will show the entity again.</p><br/>

<b>Select single or multiple entities</b><br/>
<p>To select an entity the user has to click on the entities name. The selection of an entity will partially
fade all non selected entities. Multiple selections can be made by holding down the CRTL
key while selecting additional entities.</p><br/>

<b>Changing diagram titles</b><br/>
<p>The user can dynamically alter the diagram title, the x-axis title, and the y-axis tile by clicking on
the appropriate label. A text box will then appear to enter the new title. The edit process is finished
by confirming the changes with the enter key.</p><br/>

<b>Transpose the data</b><br/>
<p>All Liquid Diagrams Gadgets offer a function to transpose data. This is especially useful if the
data is in the wrong format and it would take several minutes to transpose it by using other applications.
For example Google Docs the only external data source currently available does not
have a function to transpose the data. The transpose option is available among the gadget settings
(almost at the bottom of the gadget options frame) when adding the gadget to the spreadsheet.</p><br/>

<b>Interactively changing gadget settings</b><br/>
<p>Using Google Docs it is not possible to change the gadget settings without losing all changes that
have been made in the visualisation. That means if changes like filters, swapped axes, hidden
data,... have been made they will be reset when changing the gadget parameters with the default
Google gadget settings. This is due to the fact that a new gadget request is sent by Google and the
visualisation is created once again.</p>

<p>Using the Options Panel the user is able to change the parameters dynamically while
exploring the data. This is done through a separate gadget settings menu displayed to the left side
of the visualisation.</p><br/>

<h2 class="title">Data Format</h2>
<p>The data format of this visualisation can be seen in the <a href="dataformats.html#chart">data formats document</a>.</p>
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<h2 class="title">Parameter List</h2>


<table width="1290" border="1">
  <tr>
    <td width="65" align="center">Number</td>
    <td width="225" align="left">Parameter</td>
    <td width="98" align="center">Type</td>
    <td width="163" align="center">Options</td>
    <td width="705" align="left">Description</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">1</td>
    <td align="left">X-Size</td>
    <td align="center">Number</td>
    <td align="center"></td>
    <td align="left">The x-size available to the gadget.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">2</td>
    <td align="left">Y-Size</td>
    <td align="center">Number</td>
    <td align="center"></td>
    <td align="left">The y-size available to the gadget.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">3</td>
    <td align="left">Shorten Factor</td>
    <td align="center">Number</td>
    <td align="center"></td>
    <td align="left">The values of the y-axis are divuded by the supplied shorten factor and an abbreviation is used to symbolise this shorten factor.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">4</td>
    <td align="left">Smallest Bar Width</td>
    <td align="center">Number</td>
    <td align="center"></td>
    <td align="left">This width (in pixel) determines the smallest possible width of a single bar,
representing an entity, in the visualisation. The smaller the width the more x-ticks can be shown
in the visualisation. If the width is too large it can happen that not all data are shown in the visualisation
and a message will be displayed to indicate that.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">5</td>
    <td align="left">X-Axis Label Style</td>
    <td align="center">String</td>
    <td align="center">Centered | Line Break | Vertical | 45 Degrees</td>
    <td align="left">Determines the label style of the x-axis ticks.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">6</td>
    <td align="left">Dynamic Y-Axis</td>
    <td align="center">Boolean</td>
    <td align="center">true | false</td>
    <td align="left">Determines whether the y-axis ticks are to be updated dynamically. This concerns resize operations and hidden entities.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">7</td>
    <td align="left">Legend</td>
    <td align="center">String</td>
    <td align="center">No Legend | Horizontal | Vertical</td>
    <td align="left">Determines the legend position.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">8</td>
    <td align="left">Y-Title</td>
    <td align="center">String</td>
    <td align="center"></td>
    <td align="left">Title to be displayed on the y-axis.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">9</td>
    <td align="left">X-Title</td>
    <td align="center">String</td>
    <td align="center"></td>
    <td align="left">Title to be displayed on the x-axis.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">10</td>
    <td align="left">Title</td>
    <td align="center">String</td>
    <td align="center"></td>
    <td align="left">Diagram Title - displayed above the visualisation.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">11</td>
    <td align="left">Number Display Format</td>
    <td align="center">String</td>
    <td align="center">No Formatting | 1,000.00 | 1.000,00</td>
    <td align="left">Defines how numbers are to be displayed within the diagram.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">12</td>
    <td align="left">Line Break Signs</td>
    <td align="center">String</td>
    <td align="center"></td>
    <td align="left">Used for the "Line Break x-axis label style. Each of the supplied characters will force a line break in the label.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">13</td>
    <td align="left">Shorten Factor X</td>
    <td align="center">Number</td>
    <td align="center"></td>
    <td align="left">The shorten factor applied to x-axis tick labels. Only applicable on numeric values.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">14</td>
    <td align="left">Number Input Format</td>
    <td align="center">String</td>
    <td align="center">No Formatting | 1,000.00 | 1.000,00</td>
    <td align="left">Determines the format in which the supplied data is formatted.</td>
  </tr>
    <tr>
    <td align="center">15</td>
    <td align="left">Transpose Data</td>
    <td align="center">Boolean</td>
    <td align="center">true | false</td>
    <td align="left">Determines whether the data is transposed or not.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">16</td>
    <td align="left">Host URL</td>
    <td align="center">String</td>
    <td align="center"></td>
    <td align="left">URL of the gadget. There needs to be a colour scheme file available at "./common/color-schemes.xml" or the standard colour scheme will be used. 
The precompiled font files which can be loaded on runntime have to be stored in "./common/fonts/".</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">17</td>
    <td align="left">Show Title</td>
    <td align="center">Boolean</td>
    <td align="center">true | false</td>
    <td align="left">Show or hide the diagram title.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">18</td>
    <td align="left">Show X-Title</td>
    <td align="center">Boolean</td>
    <td align="center">true | false</td>
    <td align="left">Show or hide the x-axis title.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">19</td>
    <td align="left">Show Y-Title</td>
    <td align="center">Boolean</td>
    <td align="center">true | false</td>
    <td align="left">Show or hide the y-axis title.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">20</td>
    <td align="left">Use Ratio</td>
    <td align="center">Boolean</td>
    <td align="center">true | false</td>
    <td align="left">Determines whether to use a custom display ratio or not. If yes, x-ratio and y-ratio need to be supplied also.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">21</td>
    <td align="left">X-Ratio</td>
    <td align="center">Number</td>
    <td align="center"></td>
    <td align="left">Width ratio factor.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td align="center">22</td>
    <td align="left">Y-Ratio</td>
    <td align="center">Number</td>
    <td align="center"></td>
    <td align="left">Height ratio factor.</td>
  </tr>
</table>
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